How charter schools are dodging Colorado laws

Educators say people without college degrees, including high schoolers, are teaching in Pre-K through fifth grade classes at the Community Leadership Academy, a publicly funded charter school in Commerce City.

At the Golden View Classical Academy, in Golden, students are learning that real marriages are just between men and women, and that condoms are ineffective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Though these educational practices seem to defy Colorado law, charter schools have found a legal workaround, and many Democratic and Republican lawmakers are looking the other way. After all, charters have been the darlings of education reformers from both parties for more than 20 years.

In 1993, Colorado’s first two charter schools enrolled just 187 students. Now 226 charter schools educate more than 108,000 students statewide, making up roughly 12 percent of the total K-12 public school enrollment.

Though hundreds of laws govern public schools, many of those rules are being waived for charters both by school districts and the state Board of Education.

Currently, the Board of Education automatically grants 18 waivers involving laws related to benefits, hiring and firing at charter schools. The state makes this process easy because nearly every charter school requests these exceptions.

Golden View Classical Academy. Photo by Derec Shuler

The Board also grants non-automatic waivers, which require charter schools to explain why they should be given a pass on rules that apply to all other schools. That’s how Golden View Classical Academy dodged state sex-ed requirements.

Individual school districts set additional policies for how charter schools obtain waivers. Jefferson County, for example, offers 42 automatic waivers and dozens more non-automatic ones. Non-automatic waivers must include a replacement plan explaining the rationale for the exception and how it is tied to the school’s mission, how the school will meet the law’s intent and how the waiver’s impact will be evaluated.

In JeffCo, replacement plans must be submitted when charters turn in contract applications.

But seven JeffCo charter schools’ waiver applications reviewed by The Colorado Independent included incomplete replacement plans, and in 10 cases, blank sheets of paper with nothing but the title of the district policy where the plan should be. All but one of the applications were for five-year contract renewals with the district.

Montessori Peaks in Littleton submitted blank sheets of paper instead of replacement plans for some district waivers.

In Golden, Free Horizon Academy – which applied for dozens of waivers — merely referred to its employee handbook or school policy manual in its replacement plans. Yet the word “waiver” never appears in the manual as it applies to district policies, and there is no justification or plan for evaluating waivers, as the district requires.

Charter schools claim to educate students better than traditional schools. One reason cited: They have more flexibility in dealing with state and district bureaucracy. That flexibility includes who they can hire as teachers.

But when it comes to teachers needing a bonafide license proving they are trained, have experience and meet state standards, those requirements are waived for many charters. Instead, they hire “highly qualified” teachers, as defined in the 2001 federal “No Child Left Behind” Act — meaning they just need bachelor’s degrees, not necessarily in education, and 24 hours of coursework in the subjects they plan to teach.

[pullquote]“Parents should be aware of the astounding number of teachers in charter school classrooms today who do not hold the basic state certification to teach.” — Kerrie Dallman[/pullquote]

The new charter oversight group Care Colorado Kids estimates that fewer than half of JeffCo charter school teachers are licensed. At Compass Montessori in Golden, a district low of just 27 percent of teachers are certified.

“Parents should be aware of the astounding number of teachers in charter school classrooms today who do not hold the basic state certification to teach,” said Kerrie Dallman, a high school teacher and president of the Colorado Education Association. “Waiving schools from this statute isn’t good for kids. In fact, there’s not any research that waiving out of any of these laws improves student achievement.”

JeffCo’s automatic district waivers include policies related to layoffs, discipline and a requirement that a “mentor” teacher supervises a newly-licensed teacher. Another automatic waiver covers the district’s substitute teacher policy, which requires part-time and substitute teachers to hold either a valid teaching license or a substitute authorization from the Department of Education. The district policy bars substitutes from working 89 continuous days or a full semester. Jeffco’s 19 charter schools have waived that restriction.

One group of waivers, known as “assigned to charters,” don’t require replacement plans or any documentation on how the charter would follow the district policy’s intent. These “assigned-to-charters” waivers get schools out of laws regarding equal opportunity in hiring, equal education opportunity and who can visit the school. They also waive charter schools from laws pertaining to student interrogations, searches and arrests.

Some waivers show that schools provide full replacement plans only if the district requests them. That means the district may never evaluate how charters follow the law’s intent.

These 29 policies include curriculum development, teaching about drugs, teacher evaluations, textbook selection, health education, and how parents and students file complaints.

If a charter’s mission and curriculum doesn’t sync with state law, the school can apply for a waiver.

Only one charter in Colorado has applied for a state waiver for comprehensive sex education: Golden View Classical Academy of Golden.

Jefferson County’s newest charter opened last fall and has strong ties to billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch’s conservative political network. The school’s founder, Derec Shuler, spoke about charter schools last September at an Americans for Prosperity education reform summit. The Kochs founded AFP.

Golden View’s classical curriculum was developed by the heavily Koch-funded Hillsdale College of Michigan under its Barney Charter School Initiative, which provides curriculum and principal recommendations to affiliated charter schools. The program offers new charter school teachers an intensive two-week training session. Every summer after, teachers return to Hillsdale for more workshops.

Barney’s mission statement: “Recover our public schools from the tide of a hundred years of progressivism that has corrupted our nation’s original faithfulness to the previous 24 centuries of teaching the young the liberal arts in the West.”

Last year, JeffCo School Board approved Golden View’s charter prior to a heated recall election targeting conservative board members. Two progressive school board members, Lesley Dahlkemper and Jill Fellman, both voted against the application, concerned about Hillsdale’s “Judeo-Christian based education,” according to Complete Colorado.

Shuler assured the board Golden View would not use a religious curriculum, despite it coming from Hillsdale, a school described in its mission as “a trustee of modern man’s intellectual and spiritual inheritance from the Judeo-Christian faith and Greco-Roman culture, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.”

In its replacement plan, Golden View agreed to comply with the intent of Colorado’s sexual education law by providing “appropriate instruction on human anatomy, reproduction and sexuality.”

But the school’s family handbook, adopted before the charter application was approved in 2015, states:

“Sexual intercourse will only be discussed in the context of a monogamous relationship between two people of opposite sexes,” with a focus on abstinence as the only “100 percent safe approach to sex” in premarital relationships, “physically, emotionally, morally and spiritually.”

At the high school level, themes on sexuality will “emerge” from reading Anna Karenina, Brave New Worldor The Scarlet Letter.

“The moral and physical consequences of promiscuous sex will be made plain.”

Condoms will be discussed “only with respect to their limited effectiveness in prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.”

The state’s sex-ed law, updated in 2013, mandates schools teach about abstinence, contraception, condoms and other barrier methods. The law also requires sex-ed “to be meaningful to the experiences and needs of communities of color, immigrants;lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.” But the family handbook says sex should be reserved only for monogamous, heterosexual relationships.

In an email, Golden View principal Robert Garrow told The Colorado Independent the charter’s founding board “applied for waivers from any requirement that they understood to infringe on the curricular autonomy of a charter school. Golden View Classical Academy’s replacement plan on the waiver request from the Comprehensive Human Sexuality statute requires us to meet state academic standards as outlined by CDE. Our curriculum does meet those standards.”

Rep. Crisanta Duran

Democratic House Majority Leader Crisanta Duran, of Denver, who wrote that sex education law, reviewed Golden View’s handbook. The curriculum fails to meet the intent of the law, she said, describing the language as “deeply frustrating.”

“Part of the reason we brought forward this legislation was so that charter schools would recognize a comprehensive sex-education model.”

The Independent brought Golden View’s sex-ed curriculum to the attention of Tim Matlick, JeffCo schools’ achievement director who helps charters draft applications and waivers. Matlick is a leader in the charter school movement. He worked as principal for nine years at a Jeffco charter, Woodrow Wilson Academy and before that, nine years teaching at the Markoma Bible Academy in Oklahoma, which has since closed. In his spare time, Matlick runs BriteAlternatives, a business that “helps charter schools supplement their funding needs through the development of state-funded and tuition based programs,” according to his LinkedIn page. Though he said he was unaware of Golden View’s sex-ed curriculum, he defended it.

“Their replacement policy says they get to deliver the content in the way that meets their classical curriculum.” He added that the state granted them the waiver and “they will teach it according to the intent of the law.”

Diana Wilson, the district’s chief communications officer, also defended Golden View’s sex-ed curriculum. When asked if it meets the law’s spirit, she said, “The spirit of law is debatable. That could have a lot of interpretations.”

Rep. Dominick Moreno

Duran and other lawmakers want to curb what they see as abuse of the waivers. Democratic Rep. Dominick Moreno of Denver is proposing to eliminate automatic state waivers and instead require them to include detailed replacement plans.

Moreno points to two proposals moving through the General Assembly seeking to increase funding for charter schools. “If we’re asking for equal funding for charter schools, they should have equal accountability,” Moreno told The Independent.

As to whether the waiver process ensures accountability, “There’s no easy way to force quality control in terms of replacement plans,” Moreno said, adding that his measure was just the beginning of a larger conversation about waivers.

Both the Board of Education and Colorado’s Department of Education oppose Moreno’s bill.

Jennifer Rosensweet, who reviews waiver requests for the state Department of Education, told the House Education Committee that requiring more replacement plans would just add to her workload.

Lobbyist Jennifer Mello, representing the Colorado Board of Education, said the process in place strikes the right balance on waivers and allows the board to weigh in when a decision to approve a waiver “needs more political input.”

Dan Schaller of the League of Charter Schools told the committee that charters are accountable to their elected school boards that sign off on their contracts and are “more accountable than regular public schools.”

Some teachers who have worked in charter schools disagree.

Wenda Wilson, a JeffCo elementary school teacher, started her career at Adams County’s Commerce City Community Leadership Academy mid-year. She was the fourth instructor in her class that year. One prior teacher was an academic assistant with no college degree, she said. Academic assistants, who aren’t required to hold high school diplomas, teach when nobody else is available, often after other instructors were fired without notice or cause, which some waivers allow.

In some cases, high school students taught literacy classes, said Wilson.

Wilson and six other teachers raised the issue to the head of the League of Charter Schools, who referred the complaint back to the school’s principal, who ignored it.

Community Leadership Academy did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls earlier this week about these allegations.

“There’s a growing abuse by charter schools to waive out of policies,” said Dallman of the Colorado Education Association, and if the problem goes unaddressed, it will balloon.

Neither the public nor lawmakers understand the extent of the problem.

“School districts violate the public trust by not doing their due diligence,” Dallman added.

The abuse of the waiver process, she said, shows districts are “shirking their responsibility.”

Correction 5/5/2016: Due to incorrect documents sent by the Jefferson County School District, this story originally stated Addenbrooke Classical Academy had turned in waivers with Golden View’s name in them. The information sent by Addenbrooke as part of the school’s charter application did not include Golden View’s name.

Due to an editor’s error in an update about this issue, the update incorrectly stated that the document sent by the Jefferson County School District had been turned in by an Addenbrooke Classical Academy staff member as an accident.

has been a political journalist since 1998. She covered the state capitol for the Silver & Gold Record from 1998 to 2009 and for The Colorado Statesman in 2010-11 and 2013-14. Since 2010 she also has covered the General Assembly for newspapers in northeastern Colorado. She was recognized with awards from the Colorado Press Association for feature writing and informational graphics for her work with the Statesman in 2012.

25 COMMENTS

Just say NO to Charter Schools…they are a drag on the public dollar…all that these privates schools do, is enrich a few folks who own the Charter…the Koch brothers involvement is deep and dark…they are using these private companies to force THEIR Ideas on our kids and future teachers…the Koch brothers are a danger to this Nation, and they must be stopped at all costs..

Is this an anti-choice article disguised as an anti-charter school rant?

What is Mrs. Goodland’s primary concern: (1) charter schools not complying with the law (2) charter schools teaching an unauthorized curriculum (3) charter schools not providing students with a quality education or (4) parents having a choice about where to send their children.

Since nowhere in the article does Mrs. Goodland suggest that students aren’t receiving a good education at charter schools the answer would appear to be either (1), (2) or (4).

But since she admits that “charter schools have found a legal workaround” (the keyword there being “legal”) the answer would appear to be (2) or (4).

However, (2) seems to be ruled out since Mrs. Goodland admits that “charters have been the darlings of education reformers from both parties for more than 20 years”.

That seems to suggest that anti-choice appears to be the unspoken purpose behind the article.

And isn’t “How charter schools dodge Colorado laws” just a little misleading since nowhere does the author suggest using the waiver process equates to dodging Colorado laws.

Ms. Goodland,
Could you please city your references for your research? My 7th grade daughter’s class at Golden View Classical Academy just wrapped up a unit on evolution. They covered it in depth. Where on earth are you getting your information? How many parents, teachers, and students did you interview? What is your journalistic background?

I am a GVCA parent. I cannot speak to what other charter schools are doing, but aspersions aside, while Ms. Goodland clearly finds them disagreeable, she stipulates that these schools are acting legally.

What I can assert from my own experience is that GVCA is, indeed, a very different school experience than what most children have in this state or throughout the country. Classical education is rigorous, and very different in approach to mainstream curricula, but there is no hidden agenda!

I have repeatedly seen stories like this making assertions concerning GVCA being religious or political, with sex education, or evolution, or whatever, being used as evidence. The problem with the evidence presented is that it is simply, and demonstrably untrue! These stories used to make me angry, or question the integrity of those presenting these mistaken arguments. I believe a simpler explanation is that these stories have been told, and the people repeating and repackaging them have never taken the time to take a firsthand look and listen to what is actually being taught at GVCA. There is nothing secretive happening. The staff are quite open and accessible.

It is regrettable that a different approach to education must be greeted as a political enemy to be crushed, but unfair prejudice can often be remedied when people actually listen to different ideas.

I see that all the complaints are coming from teachers not parents. God forbid we give people the option to educate their children in a way which is consistent with their own values. Live and let live is no longer enough, the State must indoctrinate uniform secular thought, parents be damned. Just as Colorado led on drug reform we must lead the country on school choice. This will require breaking the back of the self serving teacher’s union and throwing out the politicians they have bought. We need a governor committed to real, radical choice in education.

Having worked with schools in the area of human capital management, my experience with charter schools has been chilling, to say the least. I know why teachers complain. If you take public money you need to play by public rules. While I believe that all competition is good, how does one compete without a level playing ground? I would be curious about their turnover numbers.

What’s wrong with having a choice of where to send our kids to school? We chose Golden View Classical Academy for our kids because they offer a rigorous, solid, time-tested method of education. They don’t tell kids “what” to think, but “how” to think.

Why would there be such a long wait list of potential students if the school wasn’t attractive to parents? If parents decide this is the type of education they want for their kids, why can’t they choose it? Why must education be a one-size-fits-all factory?

Charter schools do more with less money and less government support. We have an amazing community of faculty, students, and parents who work together to create a fantastic learning environment for our kids. No one is forced to attend a charter school, but hundreds, if not thousands, wish they could!

So what if my kids are doing Euclidean geometry while yours are learning to put a condom on a banana? Why does that threaten you? If you truly consider yourself a progressive, you should support a wide variety of school choice!

Kerrie Dallman has branded herself an extremist aligned with Common Core and Union special interests. She personally has such an extreme bias against charter schools she is disqualified from having a voice in the charter school conversation. She has an agenda in which she would like to see the ultimate end to charter schools. The people of Colorado are not her constituents. She is aligned with outside interests that would jump at any opportunity to cripple progress in education.

Ms. Goodland, every article you have ever written is pro-union, anti-choice and anti-charter. Every article you have ever written lambasts all conservatives and conservative thought of any kind (which many parents of public school children have.) You personally attack conservative individuals in many of your articles, simply because they do not agree with your liberal ideology. Not once have you addressed student achievement, or parental choice. Not once. Is that not important to you?

You display a shocking and utter lack of journalistic integrity. How are we to take you seriously?

Ms. Goodland, will you also be interviewing parents of GVCA (and other charters) and writing about it in a future installment (similar to what you are doing with the “parents” that brought this to your attention?) Wouldn’t that be a fair and balanced way to go about it if you are truly a journalist?

Ms. Goodland, you clearly have not been to GVCA and have no first hand knowledge of any the “facts” you think you know. GVCA has very high standards as our education system should. High standards produce quality adults. My children that now attend GVCA were very under challenged by their previous public schools. They rise to the challenge.

You are more concerned with your indoctrination agenda, than the real educational results of the schools. Your agenda and supporters are clear and if facts get in the way, demonize who you can. Right out of the Playbook.

Come to the school. Challenge your beliefs, for that is a goal of schooling and education. Our school is open to visitors, unlike most public schools.

Gather your facts first hand. Then write about the interactions you have with respectful children and teachers.

We believe there needs to be options for parents. As a nation and state fundamentally we need school choice, because monopolies, produce mediocrity. The educational system continues to have the bar lowered, than raised, and a one type fits all education system never works.

I cannot set aside that if my daughter were to go to GVCA, she would be told that her feelings are not real when it comes to marriage and relations. This policy stands to destroy the hearts of so many young children, and shape them into intallerant adults who have been brainwashed to think that sex is only between a a man and a woman. Not OK.

We have no say in a private school. We have EVERY right and responsibility to make sure that public schools accommodate EVERY child. Charters schools are public schools, and for this kind of policy to destroy my daughter’s (or any other child’s) identity is not OK!

The point of this article is that this kind of policy is allowed because of the simple fact that NOONE IS WATCHING! This policy should have been found before it was ever approved!

Waiver requests that are blank?!?! Come on! Seriously? Aren’t there people to look into this before they are approved? It sounds like this is a much bigger problem and GVCA is an example of what happens when you can get away with whatever you want…

Hey. If you want supportive journalism, turn to the Post. The bottom line? Equal accountability for equal funding.

Kerrie Dallman advocates for the masses, and against the siphoning of PUBLIC funds to and by the likes of your Golden View School. Aka Koch Industries School. She knows that the teachers’ association is the ONE Public employee organization by which the actions of the employer hurt children, because the teachers working conditions directly equate to the children’s learning conditions.

“Choice” is euphemism for privatization. Period.

To the “parent” who questions the writer’s sources: I’d be glad to conduct an interview for you, but I wonder if they’d let me in. You see, one of this type of schools waivers, is to restrict public scrutiny. Right? I teach English in Jeffko, and this guy popped into my classroom today and I’m like “can I help you? Like to sit down? What questions can I answer?” Accessible? We’ll see.

Brandy, do you know what you’re talking about? 19% of eighth-graders what? PARCC is brand-new even if 19% is accurate it’s a baseline right? Hopefully readers smell WNW rhetoric!

So Debby would you be willing to pay the tuition for that time-tested, centuries old curriculum? Should we insist that GKCA (Wichita) allow every child to get into that school? Something tells me not every kid can get in, right?

I could ask questions of you all, but do acknowledge that every one of you was posted. No censorship here. Unlike the helpful DP.

My daughter went to a neighborhood school for 5th grade sex ed and was taught that “that condoms are ineffective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases and that abstinence as the only “100 percent safe approach to sex”” I can send you the material if you want as I copied it cover to cover so I would be prepared as a parent to discuss it all with my child as I am involved in her education. I believe that as a journalist you need to get your facts straight. In addition, I have found it heart wrenching that I have to “win the lottery” to get the education I want for my child in Jefferson County. I applied to Dennison and D’Evelyn multiple times without winning the “lottery”. I am so happy that another school of the same philosophy of a CORE knowledge curriculum (not to be confused with common core) is now available in Jefferson County. I pay taxes and I believe my children should get their fair share for their education. It is all about choice — and there are many reasons why a parent chooses a school. All I can say is that it should not be left to teacher’s unions and politicians. As in our society the choice will make it self known and that is why there are lotteries for these kinds of schools. I will not put down the neighborhood schools as I believe they have their part and we need schools to deliver what they offer. But we also need schools that deliver what GVCA offers. Kids are not one size fits all and quite frankly I do not think as a society we want that. I recommend that you do more research before you publish such articles and talk to both sides of the table as you will see how choice actually is better.

I have two students at GVCA. Their teachers are some of the most educated, skilled, and intrinsically motivated educators I have encountered after shepherding our kids through 11+ years of public and private school. We love the academic rigor at GVCA and the faculty and staff that drive the high standards. All of the other issues are simply distractions from what really matters – a great academic education that prepares our kids to lead responsible, independent, and productive lives.

Thank you! We all need to call out the marketing meme that these schools are “public”! I’m looking at the rapidly approaching future of needing to put my child in a Denver school and I am frankly disgusted by how insidiously these slanted organizations have infiltrated our public school system. I really want to find ways to help direct our public money back to genuinely public schools with clear accountability to the public.

I started my teaching career at Community Leadership Academy. The situation you describe is right on. At one point, a custodian was required to track reading for an hour each day. There were a few “assistants” who taught reading without any college education or licensure. It wasn’t a Technorati stopgap measure; it was their intentional program. In my year, only about 8 teachers made it through the entire year to the end. It wasn’t unusual to come back from a weekend to find another empty classroom, with the former teacher having quit or been fired. We never knew which; the administrators never even acknowledged the situation to the staff. Many classrooms we’ve through three or four different teachers during that year. I was suddenly fired a few weeks before the end of school without any explanation. Leaving CLA was a true blessing in my life. Public schools have their troubles (I’ve taught in the public system since leaving CLA), but most public schools have some accountability. CLA’s delusional leadership makes their own rules.

When you see a large crowd of people looking up and pointing, a reasonable response is to look to see what has their attention. In September 2015 Golden View Classical Academy opened its doors unlike any other charter school in Jeffco history had done before. GVCA enrolled the largest first year population of students for a charter school in Jeffco history enrolling K-10 (500 students). The school district expressed serious concerns with the projection since the typical charter school opens with only 150 students. GVCA opened to near capacity in the 2015-2016 academic year and will do so again in the upcoming year. Moving a child into a new school is rarely an easy process, from realizing that the current academic situation is not meeting your children’s needs to identifying one that is a proper match, to physically relocating and assisting your children in their transition to new teachers, administration, routines and friends. Families from 55 unique zip codes chose to make this move to GVCA in 2015-2016. Families are commuting from the metro area as well as as far away as a 1 1/2 hours one way drive. This upcoming school year GVCA is at near capacity and there is enough of a waiting list to create an entire replica. Teachers at GVCA are competitively compensated and love their work environment. The families are fully engaged in the school as demonstrated by the volunteers and the many accomplishments that can be seen in this first year. The difference in quality meaningful academics and a focus on virtues at this school is palpable during a visit. Acquiring a deeper knowledge of the school only reinforces that feeling. US News and World report most recent publication on best high schools indicates that Charter schools in Colorado once again lead the way in excellence. This experiment has and continues to work. The parents have spoken, the GVCA charter application was accepted as a tier 1 application and GVCA is and will continue to draw parents from all around the region in confidence that our children will receive an excellent education.

I have a 5 year old going into Kindergarten this year. My wife and I researched all of the charter schools versus public schools in Douglas County. After much deliberation over about a 7 month process, we decided the public schools had a better long term tract record and each school’s results were different (better and worse) regardless of the type of school. We choose the public schools.

The following aggressive style comment (complete with multiple spelling, grammar and punctuation errors) is from a generic,EVIDENTLY LIBERAL, MAINSTREAM PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!
Mr. GLASS, HELLO???? Control your libbies!

A “teacher” whines:

Frank on May 2, 2016 at 6:59 pm

Hey. If you want supportive journalism, turn to the Post. The bottom line? Equal accountability for equal funding.

Kerrie Dallman advocates for the masses, and against the siphoning of PUBLIC funds to and by the likes of your Golden View School. Aka Koch Industries School. She knows that the teachers’ association is the ONE Public employee organization by which the actions of the employer hurt children, because the teachers working conditions directly equate to the children’s learning conditions.

“Choice” is euphemism for privatization. Period.

To the “parent” who questions the writer’s sources: I’d be glad to conduct an interview for you, but I wonder if they’d let me in. You see, one of this type of schools waivers, is to restrict public scrutiny. Right? I teach English in Jeffko, and this guy popped into my classroom today and I’m like “can I help you? Like to sit down? What questions can I answer?” Accessible? We’ll see.

Brandy, do you know what you’re talking about? 19% of eighth-graders what? PARCC is brand-new even if 19% is accurate it’s a baseline right? Hopefully readers smell WNW rhetoric!

So Debby would you be willing to pay the tuition for that time-tested, centuries old curriculum? Should we insist that GKCA (Wichita) allow every child to get into that school? Something tells me not every kid can get in, right?

I could ask questions of you all, but do acknowledge that every one of you was posted. No censorship here. Unlike the helpful DP.

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The Colorado Independent's award-winning team of veteran investigative and explanatory reporters and news columnists aims to amplify the voices of Coloradans whose stories are unheard, shine light on the relationships between people, power and policy, and hold public officials to account. We strive to report the news with context, social conscience, and soul, and to give Coloradans the insight they need to promote conversation, understanding and progress in this square, swing state we call home.

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OUR MISSION

The Colorado Independent's award-winning team of veteran investigative and explanatory reporters and news columnists aims to amplify the voices of Coloradans whose stories are unheard, shine light on the relationships between people, power and policy, and hold public officials to account. We strive to report the news with context, social conscience, and soul, and to give Coloradans the insight they need to promote conversation, understanding and progress in this square, swing state we call home.